“At age 74, Daniel Barenboim is very much in the news,” writes Terry Teachout in last Wednesday’s (12/28; subscription required) Wall Street Journal. “Among other things, he released a CD this month.… Mr. Barenboim’s latest venture, the Barenboim-Said Academy, a school for music students from the Middle East and North Africa, recently opened in Berlin, not far from the Berlin State Opera, of which he is the music director. But [in] the most consequential of his current undertakings … Mr. Barenboim has just launched his own YouTube channel. On it, he hosts a series of miniature lectures titled ‘Five Minutes On…’ Mr. Barenboim simply says hello, sits down at the piano and talks about the piece in question, playing a few well-chosen snippets and explaining what you’re hearing in uncomplicated, nontechnical language … suitable for consumption on a smartphone. They’re meant for adults, not children, and the scale is intimate: Mr. Barenboim could be sitting in your living room, talking to you alone.… Every symphony orchestra, theater company and museum in the world ought to be thinking about how to publicize its presentations in a similar manner.… All you need is a smartphone and something to say.”
Posted January 5, 2017
